Child actors behind 1968 film ‘Romeo and Juliet’ sue Paramount Pictures over nude scene

Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who starred in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, have filed a suit against Paramount Pictures for child abuse and exploitation. Both Hussey and Whiting starred in the film when they were 15 and 16 years old respectively, winning Golden Globes for their performance.

According to the suit filed in Santa Monica last week, the actors said that a bedroom scene in the filmed with both actors in the nude while their breasts and buttocks were visible. They have said that this amounts to child exploitation. The suit followed with the revelation that the film’s director Franco Zeffireli, who died in 2019, had pressurized both actors into performing the scene, warning them that otherwise ‘the film would fail’. The director had promised both his leads that there would be no nude scenes and both actors would be covered by flesh-colored underwear.

“Defendants were dishonest and secretly filmed the nude or partially nude minor children without their knowledge, in violation of the state and federal laws regulating indecency and exploitation of minors for profit,” the suit has alleged.

The statement further revealed how both actors, who are now in their 70’s, suffered mental and emotional anguish in the five and a half decades since the film’s release, and did limited effort to progress their careers.

The actors representative, Solomon Gresen, spoke with AFP about how Paramount Pictures had participated in sexual exploitation of the children, since both actors were under 16 years old and their nude scenes were visible in the film.

“(Paramount) have images that they know are images of underage nudity that should be removed from the film. That would be the beginning for sure. Sexually explicit images of children are bad and they shouldn’t be tolerated. If they were under 16, then they’re under 16. It’s a sexually explicit image of an underage person, it should be forbidden.”